A smattering of prizes and vouchers from indies prompted 83 of you lovely people to make a Hidden Gem nomination (all listed on the nominations page), delivered into the waiting mouth of our nom nom nomination box. Drawn from nominations, winners of the prizes kindly donated by local businesses will be notified by email soon.

The kind words and reasons for nominations are a great list that reminds us of why we should use independents more.

We [heart] word-clouds almost as much as the hidden gem feedback so here are the most frequently-used words from nominations and as you can see, we don’t seem to cherish independents because of low prices, opening hours or stock, it’s because we like how friendly the staff are, how special and personal the service is and how ‘different’ they are. Vive la différence indeed! Let’s not have our high street become a ‘clone town’ over-run with the same chains you find everywhere – a good mixture is best!

Like a witch’s gingerbread cottage, the traditional toy shop wendy house lured the kids inside whilst we pounced on the parents! It’s truly inspiring to get so much great feedback from locals that show how much passion there is for our town and the independent businesses that make it so unique.

One common question we were asked was “what can I do to help?” Using independents as a first point of call where feasible and convenient is the most important way. Helping spread the word about Totally Locally would help loads too! Keep an eye out for posters about promotions or Totally Locally things happening and read the info on the posters – it’s all about teaching people how to shop again.

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